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portant point is marked out in ver. 5 ; another, the calamity increas- ing, ver. 7. A fuller consideration of these months will follow at ver. 18 : by the use of which, there will be no doubt as to the meaning of the close of the power of the beast. Many persons, when they hear anything of this kind for the first time, wonder at it, as news of future events, instead of reverencing it as the word of God: they say, in short, that the matter is worthy of consideration, and yet they do not consider it in such a manner, as to lay aside for a little time lighter subjects (and what subject is not light in comparison with these of such great magnitude?), and examine into the truth : and then, when they have once or twice heard and related it, having lost the taste of novelty, they loathe it ; and with the character which they always had, they rush into the Divine judgments, whether known or unknown, regarding neither things past, nor things pre- sent, nor things future. Let them take care what they are about. We do not write for them : we will not be silent out of regard for them. See ch. xxii. 10, 11. The close of the power of the beast is therefore approaching nearer and nearer : and matters of the greatest importance will precede that close, which matters remain from ch. xiii. and xiv., and which are contained in ch. xv. and xvi. But the Non-being of the beast will follow the same close, and so will many other things, wdiich are described in ch. xvii. and those which follow.
6. Toug) Without a connecting particle, as Job xlii. 9.
7. TlbXtiJjOv noir\cai /Agra rojv ay/uv, to make war with the saints ) Dan.
vii. 21, Dy Tip LXX., snoisi noAsjaov (jjSTct ruv ay/uv. Thus
‘KoXifiov non/v, Ap. xii. 17, xix. 19, and the lxx. often for nnnta ntyy. 1. C. Becman , in his Dissertation respecting the justice of the arms of Cevennes, p. 33, rightly refers this war with the saints to the Crusades against the Waldenses. — natav, every ) The law of the Roman Pontiffs prevailed over a greater portion of the earth , than that of the Emperors : Greg. vii. lib. 2, Ep. 75.
8. npo(r/,w7)oouff/v, shall worship) The verb in ordinary use, when the ceremonies about the Pope are treated of, is adoration {worship); and connected with this by derivation is a kiss , that is, of his feet, just as npoffxuv s/V, xuvsTv, x-jfiv, is to kiss ; whence psyi, lxx. 1 Kings xix. 18, and Symmachus, Ps. ii. 12, npoffxvvsTv. — dnb) an b is here equivalent to before , as Matt. xxv. 34, note, and is plainly construed with o'j ytypanrai [not as Engl, with Itfp ay/Ag vou], and that so easily, that it is not even to be called an instance of Hyperbaton (See Append.). All doubt is removed by a passage strictly parallel, ch. xvii. 8. The Apocalypse often makes mention of the Lamb slain :
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